The documentary T-Shirt Travels (2001) explores the relationship of the secondhand clothing economy and “Third World Debt in Zambia”. This documentary should not be confused with Pietra Rivoli’s 2009 book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, which as one of my friends puts it “cares more about free markets than free people.” (h/t Alondra Nelson and Kim Yi Dionne for this video!)

2 responses to “VIDEO: T-Shirt Travels”

I LOVE this video by Shantha Bloeman. It would be great to see if there was a journal review that puts Shantha’s film in conversation with Shell & Bertozzi’s “Secondhand (Pepe) http://www.secondhandfilm.com/project.html and Pietra Rivolli and Karen Tranberg Hansens’ work.
My unsolicited opinion- Hansen, in her “helping or hindering” article continuously labels Bloeman’s analysis as a ‘negative’ perspective and basically asserts that since
~now Zambians have the agency to exert consumer preference!!11!~
and
~Zambians have sooo much fun & derive so much happiness from picking out cheap used clothes!1!!~
it is really unfair and mean-spirited to apply any critical analysis to neo-liberal governance/debt colonialism at work in the global trade of used clothing & the elimination of domestically-produced textiles and clothing